Stone, Albert W.

English

University of New Mexico

Volume 14 
Issue 2 Spring 1974 
Spring 1974 
Abstraction and Use of Water: A Comparison of Legal Regimes, by 
Ludwik A. Teclaff 
Albert W. Stone 
Recommended Citation 
Albert W. Stone, Abstraction and Use of Water: A Comparison of Legal Regimes, by Ludwik A. Teclaff, 14 
Nat. Resources J. 303 (1974). 
Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol14/iss2/14 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UNM Digital Repository. It has 
been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources Journal by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For 
more information, please contact amywinter@unm.edu, lsloane@salud.unm.edu, sarahrk@unm.edu. 
Abstraction and Use of Water:
A Comparison of Legal Regimes
By LUDWIK A. TECLAFF
New York: United Nations Publication
Pp. 154, $5.50, 1972
This study in comparative water law describes how the law and
administration of fifty or so countries deal with various aspects of
water rights acquisition and use. It does this by dividing water law
into ten major headings, and dividing those major headings into
several subdivisions. With respect to each subdivision there is a dis-
cussion of the characteristics of the law or administration of dif-
ferent countries or states which bear upon that subdivision.
This approach makes an impression of fragmentation, with series
of paragraphs discussing fragments of the water law of a country or
of several countries, but there is a good deal of utility in organizing
the subject in this way. With respect to any aspect of water law
which is covered, the treatment of it by various countries will be
found in one place, generally in several successive paragraphs. In
contrast, the book could have been organized on a strictly country
by country scheme, which would have completely lost the com-
parative law flavor and purpose of the study.
In the various subdivisions, only a selection of countries is dis-
cussed, typically from a half dozen to a dozen, which is sufficient to
illustrate the different approaches to the subject matter without be-
coming tedious or cumbersome. Then too, not every country has a
contribution to make with respect to each subdivision-one wouldn't
discuss the law of New York in connection with prior appropriation,
nor the law of Colorado in connection with riparian rights.
The study does not cover all of its material in depth. Pertinent
statutes are nearly always cited, but the text and notes are sparse
with respect to case law or administrative rulings. It makes frequent
use of and citation to secondary sources, which the reader may
follow up on if he wants more depth and detail with respect to a
particular subject matter and its treatment in a particular country.
This book is not a work that is readily usable for the purpose of
discovering the general water law and administration of any par-
ticular country, because that country will be spread out, here and
there, throughout the work. The index is just as topic minded as the
text, for the cross references are incomplete: if one looks up a
country, he will not find all of the citations to the pages where that
NA TURA L RESO UR CES JOURNAL
country is mentioned or discussed-the index must be used by sub-
ject matter rather than by country or state.
It is a work which should be quite useful as a reference work for
students of comparative water law and for persons working on
changes in their own country's water law or working on new water
law structures for developing countries. For the student it will pro-
vide a wealth of citations to statutes, administrative rulings, and
secondary sources for different countries. For the person working on
changes or new water law it provides ideas by describing different
approaches and practices.
ALBERT W. STONE*
*Professor of Law, University of Montana.
[Vol. 14


Abstraction and Use of Water: A Comparison of Legal Regimes, by Ludwik A. Teclaff

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3312&amp;context=nrj

Abstraction and Use of Water: A Comparison of Legal Regimes, by Ludwik A. Teclaff

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of New Mexico